Online Marketing Trends

Here are some of the best B2B   online marketing trends and statistics which have been compiled from many websites. I hope that some of my readers who  are b2b marketers might find these links interesting.While there might be many sites which i may have missed, I would appreciate if you could send me more b2b resources which would be web marketers. Special thanks to  Adam Bache  of socialmedia b2b and Sarah Chong 

Usage:

•   86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C. 
•   B2B firms aren’t as active in their social media activity with only 32% engaging on a daily basis compared with 52% of B2C firms. 
•   More than half (53.5%) of marketers surveyed said they currently use social media as part of their marketing strategy. as compared to  45% in 2009
•  81 % of B2B companies have accounts on social media sites compared to 67% of B2C
•  75% of B2B brands participate in Twitter versus 49% of B2C

Forecasts:

•   Annual growth in US B2B online marketing  is set to reach 14% by 2012. and  to $54 million in 2014.  
•   B2B advertising spend on social media and lead generation sites is  to grow at an annualized rate of 21% and 17% respectively in      2013. 
•   Online accounted for 7% of the B2B marketing mix in 2008. This is set to reach 12% by 2013. (Source)
•   Two thirds of B2B marketers believe that online must be complemented by traditional marketing activities. (Source)
•  Only 50% of B2B marketers formally analyze metrics to judge ROI –  B2B marketing spending on social networking sites is predicted to rise 43.3%. (Source)

Decision Makers  Interest:

•   36% of B2B execs surveyed said there was low executive interest in social media in their company, compared with 9% of B2C marketers who said the same. (Source)
•   46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their company, while only 12% of consumer-oriented marketers had the same problem. (Source)
•   Eight out of Ten  IT decision makers said word of mouth is the most important source when making buying decisions

Focus:

•    According to an eMarketer study, B2B online marketers focus on lead generation (38%), retention (34%) and awareness (28%).  (Source)
•    The top applications for the use of social media for b2b marketers are thought leadership (59.8%), lead generation (48.9%), customer feedback (45.7%) and advertising on sites (34.7%). (Source)
•  93% of B2B buyers use a search engine such as Google to begin the buying process
• 81% of B2B companies maintain company-related accounts or profiles on social media sites versus 67% of B2C
• 75% of B2Bers participate in microblogging (eg. Twitter) versus 49% of B2Cers
• Just 16 of the FTSE 100 companies are using Twitter, despite the fact that 20% of Tweets contain a reference to a product or brand

Distribution Channels:

•  Asked to rate the effectiveness of specific social media sites in their marketing efforts, more than one-half of respondents said that 
• Facebook was “extremely” or “somewhat” effective. Somewhat fewer said the same of LinkedIn, and just 35% considered Twitter effective.
•  In contrast, when Hubspot surveyed B2B companies in North America about lead generation through social channels, 45% rated LinkedIn effective, compared with just 33% who said the same of Facebook.
•  Methods generating the highest B2B ROI are topped by advertisers’ own websites, followed by conferences, exhibitions and trade shows; direct mail; search engine keywords; and e-marketing/e-newsletters.
• 7 out of 10 buyers say that they start their buying process at vendor sites, not Google
• 89% of journalists make use of blogs while conducting their online research and 96% turn to corporate websites

Measurement

•  34% of B2B marketers said they were not measuring social success at all versus just 10% of B2C respondents. (Source)
•  Website traffic, brand awareness, engagement with prospects and engagement with customers are the leading metrics used to measure the success of social media for B2B companies. (Source)
• 54% of CIOs prohibit use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work

Resource Allocation:

•     60% of B2B firms have no staff dedicated to social media compared with 54% of B2C players. (Source)
•     Just 10% of B2B firms use outside agencies or consultants compared with 28% of B2C firms. (Source)
•     B2B product marketers were spending an average of 3.4% of their marketing budgets on social media in February 2010, and B2B services marketers were spending 6.5%. 
•    Within online marketing, the top areas that will see spending increases include Web site development (70.7% plan increases), email marketing (68.6%), search marketing (62.3%), social media (60.3%), video (50.7%) and webcasts (46.0%) (Source)

For most companies and brands ,social media seems to be a double edged sword. The common perception among most brands are “While positive reviews and online viral buzz might help you take your brand to a couple of notched above your competitors, a negative review might bring you 5 times below consumer perception While some part of this reasoning is true.. The real fact of this double edged nature of the social media, is that the digital medium is a great leveler, while you might have people complaining about some of the services or product of yours, You might also have your online brand endorsers who would be quick to post a positive review of yours if he has something nice to share about you.

Sam decker of Clickz.com  blogged on ” Reasons why companies does not fear negative reviews

Sam points out that contrary to popular perception ,Most reviews are positive. Most reviews - up to 88 percent in the U.S., for example - are four or five stars out of a possible five stars. This percentage holds up worldwide and across a variety of industries. All feedback including negative feedback - builds authenticity. Including customer reviews on your site shows that you care about the direct input of customers; however, a site full of nothing but glowing reviews can make a shopper skeptical.

Allowing a mix of positive and negative reviews proves to customers that you care about what they say - both good and bad. It also shows that no brand can always be 100% correct in their interfacing with their consumers “Bad” isn’t always bad. While some reviewers may rate a camera low because they believe the battery life should exceed six hours, others may not be so stringent. Qualities that matter to one consumer may not matter to all - or even most - consumers.

In other words, it means that reviews per se is both qualitative and quantative..There is nothing that will be correct across all consumers. A product can mean different things to different people, and as a Brand you have to make sure that you cater to the lower common denominator or the segment which you believe has the maximum market potential Reviews .

Numerous case studies and client anecdotes prove that having any reviews has a positive impact over having no reviews. Big Brands always has both users who love to hate and users who hate to love.. A controversial move might alienate a certain class of your customers.. but you might get a thumbs up from another class . Reviews let you know exactly how to improve your products. Sure, negative feedback can be hard to hear, but having reviews or Q&A on your site lets you aggregate what people think, quickly and easily - and you can respond directly to your consumers.

Sam gives the example of , Domino’s Pizza recently made headlines with its “Pizza Turnaround” campaign, publicizing its decision to act on customers’ feedback to radically improve upon its 50-year-old recipe. Recently, when Consumer Reports gave Apple’s iPhone 4 a bad review, Apple deleted all references to the article that consumers posted to its discussion board. This prompted an outrage about censorship, which bloggers and other social network users brought to the forefront.

So, what was really more damaging to Apple’s brand: a less-than-stellar review from Consumer Reports, or the censorship story that followed?

More examples include BP oil Spill which generated heaps and tons of comments on British Petroleum.Web users dismayed by the BP oil leak are using Facebook and Twitter to channel outrage, organize cleanups, and poke fun at the public relations crisis facing the company behind the largest-ever U.S. spill. here is no doubt that BP has heard them loud and clear but can they even begin to control this social media spill?

While many of us are familiar with the Like Button for Facebook and might have clicked  at the like button of some facebook pages  you loved. Do you think that they should also have a dislike button for something which you dont like ?

Well thats precisely many users and companies are asking.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told ABC’s Diane Sawyer this week that Facebook would “definitely think about” adding a Dislike button to the site, allowing users to express distaste for updates or pages on Facebook.

A Facebook group for the concept has nearly 3.2 million fans, while there are at least two unofficial “dislike button” extensions for the Firefox browser.

According to Mashable Founder “Pete Cashmore “But Zuckerberg is just humoring us: Facebook will never add a Dislike button, regardless of users’ demands.

Those clamoring for a “thumbs down” option seem to fall into two camps. For some, “Liking” tragic news seems inappropriate — and yet Facebook does offer a “Share” option on its own site, while third party sites can opt to use a “Recommend” button instead. Others simply want to express distaste for a page or news update — this is a move Facebook will never make, however, because it doesn’t align with the company’s interests. 

What is also not very  clear that how would advertisings react if a competitor decides to dislike something with the intention of using facebook button to belittle  their rivals. There is no doubt that at times” The like button” is simply inappropriate for a particular story or a news .. For example a story like ” 20  killed in a train accident in india”  has a like button ..  ideally instead of a” like “. button for stories like this .. Facebook maybe should start using ” Share Button”

Facebook  is probably interested only with a positive brand association with advertisers , and using a  dislike button because it would damage the company’s relationships with brands, businesses and web publishers — these groups are essential for building both web traffic and ad revenue

Click Here To Read what Facebook Founder ” Mark Zuckerberg on the dislike Button  

This is the second part of my post on : “How Cisco has been able to use social media ” to market something as utterly boring as Routers” .

Social Media in a b2b  environment  is an experience and not an event.  Most Brands using Social Media  continue to use  traditional web1.0 tactics..forgetting that social media is about co creation, collaboration,  crowd sourcing and Integrating your brands experience with  user perception.Instead of making  users a part of your brand experience .. they are too busy broadcasting one way messages…rather than engaging with them

News and Rumors about Google’s new upcoming social media property continue to dominate news headlines across the industry.  I had mentioned in my earlier  Post, that Google has a long history of being unsuccessful across their social media initiatives.. “Google Buzz” and “Google Wav”e are the latest  victims of Google trying to be everything for everyone .. which is the perfect recipe to blow up your brand …Beyond the ” Search” Google labs has produced products  one after another..  which continues to remain in perpetual beta phase.

While there is no doubt that  perhaps the time has come  to challenge Facebook’s phenomenal run away growth.. which can only mean  more choices for an average consumer.However I am not sure if Google is the right player to  challenge Facebook

Mashable recently posted an  article  on Google’s notorious failures  in the social Media space  with a very interesting image which I have reproduced..

Image Courtesy :Stephanie Marcus and graphics by Shane Snow of Mashable 

Mashable  has handpicked 40 of the best brands experimenting with the micro-blogging platform, and asked them a few short questions about how they’re using Twitter.

Smart brands use Twitter in meaningful ways, and most of them use their brand name as a way to make sure customers can find and recognize them. This piece, and the knowledge I learned from the incessant hours invested, demonstrate why brands do belong on Twitter. No other medium gets you inside a business or brand quiet like Twitter.

Click here to Read on the top 10 Twitter Brands .. Brands who have used Twitter to engage,differentiate create larger  than Life Brand persona’s across the digital Platform 

Know How These Brands Used Twitter to Position  Their Products differently